Rosen Shingle Creek

We’ve written consistently about CSR in Prevue, and how it’s not just responsible business—it’s also good for business. As more companies ramp up their corporate citizenry, they’re aligning themselves with like-minded suppliers and buyers that’s driving business inside a new competitive environment.

Case in point. We attended the annual Pow Wow tradeshow in Orlando this summer and there was little question about where we were going to drop our bags for a couple nights.

Rosen Hotels & Resorts has been at the forefront of the CSR conversation long before it was much of a conversation. They were the first hotel company in Central Florida to achieve Florida’s stringent Two-Palm sustainability standard, at all three of their convention properties no less: Rosen Shingle Creek, Rosen Centre and Rosen Plaza. With regard to community service, president Harris Rosen has invested heavily for decades in the Tangelo Park educational system, supporting hundreds of disadvantaged youth through high school and college.

So we checked in at the AAA 4-diamond, 1,500-room Rosen Shingle Creek, located on 230 acres about three minutes from the Orange Country Convention Center. It overlooks the lush fairways of one of Central Florida’s top 10 golf courses rimmed by a forest of trees, which feels almost surreal to be surrounded by so much nature in the heart of the city.

“The location is outstanding with the close proximity to the airport and convention center,” says Leslie Menichini, vp of sales/marketing for the brand. “People are in awe of the setting and how they feel removed from the city, as well as the Spanish Revival design and architecture.”

Menichini was part of the brainstorming process during the initial design phase, which she says is another example of Rosen Hotels’ corporate culture. And it shows, because someone in Menichini’s position knows what meeting pros want. Everything about the property is designed for streamlined movement for 5,000+ pax groups, from the huge porte cochere to the grand mezzanine lobby wrapping around the restaurants that face the sprawling pool deck. Furthermore, the hotel’s sightlines always seem to point to the leafy outdoors, creating a warm sense of hominess for such a large property.

“The flow and the logistics are outstanding, we hear so much positive feedback about that,” says Menichini. “That really helps for networking, and little groups feel like little gems here because everything is so easy to find—they never feel lost.”

It’s the same deal with the meeting and event space, which is some of the largest in Florida. A voluminous 445,000 sf can host up to 9,400 guests, with over 90 breakouts and 30 hospitality suites. The largest of the three ballrooms tops 95,000 sf with no pillars and 37-ft ceilings, and planners have access to 161 suite accommodations that can be used for small groups. The other two ballrooms are 60,000 and 40,000 sf.

There’s also the ability to campus larger groups with the 1,334-room Rosen Centre and 800-room Rosen Plaza properties on one master account. Both of those hotels are wrapping up room renovations right down to the walls by the end of the year.

Worth International Media Group, publisher of Prevue magazine, has 50 years of destination publication experience, including custom content and the industry’s leading brand for travel agents, Recommend magazine.